At a City Council committee meeting Thursday, a representative of the Seattle Police Department avoided commenting on whether the shooting stemmed from a fight within the club on Western Avenue. Also, a lawyer for the club gave the council a security video he said demonstrates no such dispute started inside.

At least one council member is skeptical that clubs are fundamentally to blame for violence of patrons outside. Shootings happen all over the city, Richard McIver said. When a Belltown activist suggested that some clubs are “magnets” to trouble, McIver said: “I don’t buy that because I saw what the city did to Oscars,” McIver said, referring to a club city officials tried to shutter years ago – an effort that eventually cost Seattle taxpayers $675 K in a lawsuit settlement, and state taxpayers another $525K.

Last fall, Nickels proposed requiring bars and clubsget special licenses and abide by specific operating standards, such as rules meant to curtail excessive noise, littering and violence in and around clubs. The proposal is before the economic development committee of City Councilwoman Sally Clark.

In May, Clark said she wanted to avoid the licensure requirement altogether. She said she wanted to improve existing noise and nuisance laws instead.

Now, Clark appears poised to drop the licensure plan again. She told her committee that there is not a majority of council members who support creating a new license.

Clark told her that she hopes to write a new (license-less) proposal in time for her committee to vote it out July 19. The proposal would likely include stiffer rules about excessive noise and public nuisances and a requirement that clubs draw up safety plans.